[Editor's Note: Solve this month's Windows NT problem and get the chance to win $100 or a copy of one of the author's books about NT. Email your solutions (don't use an attachment) to challenge@win2000mag.com. Include your full name, mailing address, and connection to NT (e.g., administrator, user). Because of the number of entries, we can't reply to all respondents. Look for the solution to this month's problem in the May issue.]
Herman, an enthusiastic employee in his company's research department, wants to be a member of the IT department. He convinced Melinda, the IT director, to let him help in her department. Yesterday, Melinda gave Herman a list of easy-to-accomplish chores that she wanted him to perform on one of the company file servers that runs Windows NT Server 4.0 with NTFS. After he finished the work Melinda had assigned him, Herman decided to tweak the server to tighten security.
Problem
Today, the server's D drive, which holds software and data files for six departments, is configured for No Access, and nobody can access the server. Herman is distraught and is cowering in the corner of the cafeteria. Quick--tell him how to undo the damage to the D drive.
NOVEMBER WINNERS
Congratulations to Chris Harris, a Windows NT consultant from Australia, and Katherine Gay, an administrator and MCSE instructor from Virginia. Chris won first prize of $100 for the best solution to the November Reader Challenge. Katherine won second prize of a copy of Windows NT Troubleshooting (Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 1998).
Problem
Fast Freddie is a systems administrator with more energy and enthusiasm than anyone else in the IT department. Freddie's enthusiasm drives his boss crazy. On a recent Monday morning, Freddie flew through the doorway of his boss' office and yelled, "I have a brilliant idea. You'll love it." Freddie's boss laid her head on her desk and replied, "Go away. It's too early."
"No. You'll love this idea," Freddie continued. " I'm converting all the servers that we use for file services to volume sets. The servers have multiple partitions or multiple logical drives, and volume sets let users access data more easily because users need to remember only one drive letter. File access is much faster with volume sets when you're reading or writing files. Plus, the way the OS uses hard disk space is more efficient. And an added security advantage is that volume sets provide redundancy."
Freddie's boss shook her head. "Your approach has one major flaw," she told him. What's the flaw in Freddie's reasons for changing the company's file servers to volume sets?
Solution
The major flaw is that volume sets don't provide redundancy. In addition, they're not faster than file services, and they're not much more efficient. The existing servers already have multiple partitions or logical drives, and you create volume sets from free space. Freddie was correct on one point, though--volume sets let you use only one drive letter to access data.